Besides Canada, Svalbard, Australia & New Zealand are other options for Americans who want to flee Trump presidency
Since Canada’s Immigration website crashed on Wednesday when Republican candidate Donald Trump was declared the 45th president of the US, American who fear a Trump rule are looking at other English-speaking countries as immigration destination. Next on their lists are two countries in the southern hemisphere – Australia and New Zealand.
The New York Post reports that on late Tuesday, when Trump was leading rival Hillary Clinton, the phrase “New Zealand immigration” started to trend on Google. It reached a 24-hour-high on Wednesday at 4:04 am.
Americans were also asking their friends in New Zealand, such as software executive Rod Drury, for work opportunities in the country. Drury says in the next month, it would be interesting to see if the intent to immigrate would translate into real action.
“Australia immigration” also trended at about the same time as New Zealand. Closer to the mainland, many Americans – including celebrities such as Ne-Yo, Stephen King, Barbra Streisand, Lena Dunham and Bryan Cranston – are thinking of heading up north to Canada.
All three English-speaking countries have immigration programmes open to skilled migrants. Canada and New Zealand have age caps of 55, while it is lower for Australia. Commenting on the surge of interest from Americans, Canadian daily The Globe & Mail, in an editorial, wrote: “There is no way to mince words about the result. Donald Trump, who in the early hours of Wednesday morning won the presidency of the United States, is not the ideal candidate for the job.”
Other than the three nations, other options for disappointed and disgruntled Americans are Ireland, Sweden and Svalbard, a Norwegian territory, where there is no residence permit or visa needed to settle, Mashable reports. There are two further requirements to immigrate to Svalbard: first, is the migrants should be financially capable to provide for themselves since they would not be entitled to social services, and second, the migrants should be able to defend themselves against polar bears.
There is a possible third option wherein Trump-fleers would not have to leave the mainland if it would go beyond being a trending topic on social media. The Yes California campaign is the predominantly Democratic state’s version of Brexit.
Californians, such as Valerie, argue that the state should secede since it is the richest state in the US and strong enough to be on its own. Anika adds in a tweet that California is the sixth largest economy in the world, The Telegraph reports.
